4 ms·

The site became mainstream while still being extremely vulnerable to manipulation by a very small pool of individuals. They've done next to nothing to address h

by alecb 6y ago

The site became mainstream while still being extremely vulnerable to manipulation by a very small pool of individuals. They've done next to nothing to address how effective and rampant brigading is (among other tactics).

asdff 6y ago
It really doesn't take much to brigade. Write some scripts to get 100 accounts upvoting your posts while they are on new, and chances are after that initial hump you've surmounted with your bots it will catch exponential viewership over the course of the day and make it to the front page.
- at-fates-hands 6y ago
  You see this happening constantly on Twitter. You see unverified accounts with one or two followers having tweets that are trending within a few minutes with tens of thousands of "likes" and thousands of "retweets" and Twitter doesn't even blink an eye, but its so blatantly obvious what's happening.
- canada_dry 6y ago
  > It really doesn't take much to brigade What's frightening is that groups like politicians, unions, and extreme right-wing groups could very easily use this technique to quickly and pretty effectively promote or quell discussion. I just recently saw an example of where this might have happened. Very suddenly a comment in a discussion I was following - what initially was a popular up-voted opinion (i.e discussing police brutality) - got down-voted into oblivion (from +5 to -25) in less than 5 minutes. The comment was deleted soon after - probably to protect their score. This kind of quick/easy manipulation by bots can't be easy to detect/deal with yet I fear it may become mainstream.
  - thedrbrian 6y ago
    How can it be that the right wing are simultaneously back woods idiots and also capable of out teching the coastal elite?
  - blockmarker 6y ago
    Extreme right-wing(and center-right) are countered by the extreme left moderators and administrators. I assure you, if left-wing posts started being vote brigaded, Reddit would ban all those involved. They can already detect and ban vote brigading, they just don't care to stop it.

by alecb 6y ago

asdff 6y ago

It really doesn't take much to brigade. Write some scripts to get 100 accounts upvoting your posts while they are on new, and chances are after that initial hump you've surmounted with your bots it will catch exponential viewership over the course of the day and make it to the front page.

at-fates-hands 6y ago
You see this happening constantly on Twitter. You see unverified accounts with one or two followers having tweets that are trending within a few minutes with tens of thousands of "likes" and thousands of "retweets" and Twitter doesn't even blink an eye, but its so blatantly obvious what's happening.
canada_dry 6y ago
> It really doesn't take much to brigade What's frightening is that groups like politicians, unions, and extreme right-wing groups could very easily use this technique to quickly and pretty effectively promote or quell discussion. I just recently saw an example of where this might have happened. Very suddenly a comment in a discussion I was following - what initially was a popular up-voted opinion (i.e discussing police brutality) - got down-voted into oblivion (from +5 to -25) in less than 5 minutes. The comment was deleted soon after - probably to protect their score. This kind of quick/easy manipulation by bots can't be easy to detect/deal with yet I fear it may become mainstream.
- thedrbrian 6y ago
  How can it be that the right wing are simultaneously back woods idiots and also capable of out teching the coastal elite?
- blockmarker 6y ago
  Extreme right-wing(and center-right) are countered by the extreme left moderators and administrators. I assure you, if left-wing posts started being vote brigaded, Reddit would ban all those involved. They can already detect and ban vote brigading, they just don't care to stop it.